File:  GCCAA - Professional Staff Annual Leave

Annual leave shall be available for all professional staff.  Each full-time professional staff member shall be entitled to ten (10) days of annual leave per school year.  Regular part-time (scheduled less than forty (40) hours per week) professional staff shall accrue annual leave on a prorated basis.

The ten (10) days of annual leave shall be credited to the professional staff member's annual leave account on the first day of the school year.  Annual leave days may be taken throughout the school year even though such annual leave days may not be fully earned when taken.

Each year, professional staff may have the first four (4) unused annual leave days bought back by the District at the end of the school year at the substitute teacher rate of pay.  These payouts must be elected on or before June 1st for payment on the July 15th paycheck.

Annual leave not used (or bought back) shall accumulate as banked annual leave and will automatically roll into the professional staff member's banked annual leave account for the following year. Banked annual leave can only be used in instances of illness, injury, short-term disability related to pregnancy, maternity or paternity leave, and other uses allowed under the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act.

In all instances, annual leave must be used before accessing banked annual leave.

A professional staff member who is unable to report for work at the beginning of the school year because of an illness or disability shall not be credited with annual leave for that year until they have returned to work. Upon return, the professional staff member shall be credited with an adjusted annual leave allowance which shall be used to diminish any deductions sustained for the absence.

While on leave a professional staff member shall retain but not accrue additional annual leave except as otherwise indicated.

Professional staff member taking annual leave may use their leave for any purpose, however after four (4) consecutive days of leave, the professional staff member may be required to verify an illness or injury by furnishing a medical doctor's statement or certificate pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplace Act.  Abuse of annual leave shall be grounds for discipline and may be grounds for dismissal.

A professional staff member who is absent due to serious illness in their immediate family may have such absence charged to their banked annual leave account.  A professional staff member who is absent due to death in their immediate family or spouse's family may use banked annual leave days. Annual leave must be used before accessing banked annual leave.

For each actual workday a professional staff member is absent after annual leave allowances are exhausted a deduction shall be made from their next regularly scheduled paycheck in the amount equal to their annual salary divided by the number of actual working days for which they are scheduled.

A professional staff member who terminates employment before the end of the year who has used more annual leave than the fraction of the year warrants shall have the appropriate amount deducted from their final paycheck.

A professional staff member who leaves the District after at least five (5) full years of employment shall be compensated for up to ninety (90) unused banked annual leave days at a rate depending on their years of employment in the District, according to the following schedule:

When referring to working conditions, salary or benefits, the negotiated contract, which is currently in effect, will prevail.  If an approved contract is not in place, these attached policies, regulations and/or exhibits will take their place.

Adopted:  June 14, 1983
Revised:  April 9, 1985
Revised:  June 14, 1988
Revised:  August 22, 1995
Revised:  May 12, 1998
Revised:  January 8, 2003
Revised:  August 22, 2007
Revised:  November 8, 2018
Revised:  September 22, 2022

LEGAL REFS:  SB20-205, "Healthy Families and Workplaces Act"

CROSS REFS.:   GBCA, Staff Sick Leave Bank

GCCB, Administrative Staff Leaves and Absences

Current Summit County Education Association Agreement